Bob Doman Is the Director and President of the National Association for Child Development

Kristin (Host): Bob Doman is the Director and President of the National Association for Child Development. You're going to be hearing us talk about something called NACD. That's what that stands for. It was founded in 1979 he's also been a leader in the treatment of autism since the early seventies working with the team that first understood autism as a neuro-developmental problem and identified, understood and treated sensory dysfunction. Bob and NACD help bring sound therapy to the country and later developed the listening program with his son, Alex Doman, followed by the targeted sound intervention programs with his NACD team. The list goes on and on of everything that Bob has accomplished and done for our community. I just think the world of this man. I think you are in, like I said, for a real, real treat. So thank you so much, Bob for being here today. Bob Doman (Speaker): Thank you, Kristin. Kristin (Host): So, we're going to be talking about the neuro-plasticity and what that means is hope and change for autism. And I know when you first talked to me about it, when you think about the brain being able to be plastic and change, I think so many people out there watching today still believe that you become concreted or at a certain age, it just stops. I know today we're going to be talking a lot about that and how our kids at any age can really thrive and continue to do better and better. Before we get started with that, we talked about--you've been doing this since the 70s. My goodness! You've been around before autism was even a popular name with one in 59, I'm sure that you've seen it really transform from one in, I guess it would probably be 5,000 or 2,500 back then? Bob Doman (Speaker): I have. It's from childhood schizophrenia to autism to autism spectrum. I really wish I can say I've seen as much change as I would've hoped I had seen in 50 years. Things are not progressing at the rate I would like to see them progress. And it's actually sad that it's so difficult to get people to look at the big picture and to perceive autism as not a disease that is interest stuck, but that it is a developmental issue, a neuro-developmental issue, that you can address and produce significant change. I need people to aim higher and perceive it differently and understand that we don't have to settle for a little when it's possible to eat a lot. Kristin (Host): Absolutely. I know you, like you said, you've been working with autism for quite some time. Do you have it all figured out? Bob Doman (Speaker): I wish I could say I had it all figured out. I'm happy to say that we keep getting a better and better and better understanding. The reality is it's terribly complex and I can deal with a hundred different children on the spectrum. We have 100 different combinations of problems and issues and need their own unique solutions. So, it's never going to be something that we have figured out, but I'm happy to say we keep understanding more and more and more and getting better and better at taking care of it. © All Rights Reserved 2019 ~ Autism Hope Alliance 1 Kristin (Host): Now, we talked about this word neuro-plasticity. Before I ask you all the different amazing techniques that you have with that, let's talk about something that most people might not understand. I know that when I first heard the word neuro-plasticity, it kind of makes sense. Like you think your brain plastic growing and all that, but a lot of people may be watching for the first time, may be completely unaware of what even the word means. So, before we start diving into neuro-plasticity, let's talk about what that definition actually means. Bob Doman (Speaker): Essentially, all human development is a reflection of neuroplasticity and essentially neuroplasticity means that as we stimulate the brain, as we use the brain, you're growing connections between the neurons, equating networks within the brain. And that is what actually changes our function. The change from a newborn infant to an adult, every aspect of that is a reflection of neuroplasticity. A big part of what people need to understand is the fundamentals of it are the brain needs specific input, delivered with sufficient frequency, intensity and duration to actually trigger the change. So many of the things that are being done with our kids really ignore those basic tenets of what neuroplasticity is. Instead of having input received many times a day, it's once or twice a week. And if you will, the very nature of the brain is when we appropriately stimulate it, we excite a bunch of neurons and as soon as we stopped the input, it begins to fade away. So, if we come in on Monday and even if we're doing the right thing, we get some excitement going in the brain and we don't come back until Wednesday or Thursday, we keep covering the same ground again, if you will. One of the reasons that we worked directly with parents and training parents so parents can work with their kids daily, is so we can come in on Monday morning, Monday afternoon, Monday evening, and keep pushing it forward. And also doing it with the necessary specificity, meaning the more targeted we are, the greater effect we have, the greater the change we'd produce. Kristin (Host): How long have you been using neuro-plasticity? Bob Doman (Speaker): Since 1969. Kristin (Host): Wow! Bob Doman (Speaker): Which is very interesting. I'm second generation to work. My father was a physiatrist and then he specialized in rehabilitation and I kind of grew up knowing, understanding neuroplasticity and you can change the brain. And initially, that work was done with brain injured kids or we're taking kids who people said, you can't change anything. This child is cortically blind, they have these physiological issues, they have these structural issues, you're not going to change it and changing it through specific input. I've spent my entire career understanding and using neuroplasticity and sadly, the world is just beginning to understand that it even exists, let alone how to utilize it. © All Rights Reserved 2019 ~ Autism Hope Alliance 2 Kristin (Host): How can our children take advantage of neuroplasticity? Bob Doman (Speaker): Kids on the spectrum, we actually have an interesting situation because we need to determine what pieces need to be addressed, which are again, very unique to each individual child. We have to determine what specific input is going to help produce those changes, supply that input in a targeted way with frequency, intensity and duration. At the same time with the spectrum, we've got almost a unique issue that we have all these sensory issues; sensory-isms stems, what I call debilitating century addictive behaviors that actually trigger negative neuroplasticity. If you look at a lot of our kids and say, "What is their brain doing more than anything else?" Well, if it's this, guess why it gets better, would get stronger, not better, get stronger? Actually, what they're doing is actually making the situation worse through a good part of their day. We unfortunately have kids on the spectrum who received, if you will, minutes or a couple hours of therapy a day, and spend hours and hours and hours stimming and making their brain worse. It's a particularly tough problem. There's a lot of things we need specifically to do and a lot of things we need specifically to stop. Kristin (Host): Now, I'm thinking about, when our children are on the spectrum, what interferes with their typical neuro development. Like what, what's happening, what's the cause of their brain even starting to do this? Bob Doman (Speaker): Well, cause is one of those big question marks and there's talk that there's genetic predisposition to it. There's talk that the toxins are contributing factors. I don't know what causes it and people are working specifically on that end. My work has been on how do we fix it, if you will. How do we change it? And I think it's going to be a long time before we really know the cause. But essentially what happens if you start off with a child, be it a child on the spectrum or a brain injured child or a child with Down Syndrome, child with any kind of developmental issue and you start off with some sensory dysfunction, and it could be in a visual, tactile, it could involve all the senses. You learn through your senses. We stimulate the brain, we trigger neuroplasticity through our senses. So, to whatever degree the senses aren't working, we lack development. For example, if I have a severely brain injured child, who is essentially deaf and blind, the tactile, they can't feel their body, that child without a lot of specific input, just does not develop, at all. We see these kids who are 10 years old functioning almost like newborns because the brain isn't receiving input stimulation. With the kids on the spectrum, we've got these sensory issues that are negatively impacting the input to the brain.

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